Celebrating 25 years!!!!

Traveling with Vivian 5 photos at a time!

Embracing the Chinese Tourist Identity...Day 2

Waking up in Beijing City. This is the view from our hotel room. China is really changing. Although our tour will be visiting a lot of historical sites in China, one cannot help but notice the rapid change everywhere and the evolution of the New China.

Everywhere we go, we see banners with slogans on it. This one is left over from the Beijing Olympic. It says: "One World, One Dream".

Our "National Tour Guide", Tina, who didn't actually stay with us for the entire national trip. Having a national tour guide sure made things easier - especially the tipping. Our itinerary today is: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace. Yes, I know one would normally spend 3 - 4 days seeing these four places, but we are on a tour. Two days in Beijing, wha-da-ya expect?

Beijing was, as expected, hazy. The air polution is just as bad as others claim it to be, however, we were pleasantly surprised about how clean and how green the city was. Why of course, they have garbage-tricycles instead of garbage-trucks on the street!

View from Tiananmen Square. The China Trip wouldn't BE the China Trip without this famous photo. Hello Mao!

We all know that China is under the Communist Party's rule. Now, other than Mao, what DOES communism look like? Perhaps the increased security everywhere near any important landmarks? Note the police, security, and army officers scattered in Tiananmen Square, and everywhere in between.

We are about to enter the Forbidden City here. This is the "Meridian Gate". The Emperors used to have people dragged out of this door to be beheaded. Note how scared I look.

YES! WE ARE TOURISTS! Let us embrace our tourist identity and take some pictures!

Look at how big this place is. Wouldn't it be awesome to be an emperor? Although, Rockie, our local tourguide, says that to be a good emperor, one needs to work for 14 hours every day.

Also, did you know that underneath the bricks you see here, there are 14 more layers of brick? Why you ask. Well, the Emperor was really paranoid and was afraid that someone would dig a tunnel into the Forbidden City to assasinate him undetected. Solution? Make it so that it is impossible to dig a tunnel.

More beautiful sights inside the Forbidden City. The Imperial Family is all about rules. There are rules about who can walk through which doors/bridges, about when it is allowed to have people walk into and out of the Forbidden City, about how it is to be done and which attire is to be worn. There are details and rules about EVERYTHING. It looks like a grand place, but really it is just a really big, really fancy cage.

The Imperial Palace is the only building in the country that is allowed to have roofs with yellow tiles. Look at the design. Beautiful, eh?

Leaving on a JetCrowded Plane...Day 1

Twenty Two. That is the number of hours it took us to get to Beijing from Vancouver. We spent the entire day waiting. The line to get checked in stretched across the entire international airport - I have never seen a plane so full. Despite that, mom and I were excited to start our trip.





On the plane, we ended up with the middle seats. I sat next to a large man. He snored and took up the entire arm rest. Mom sat into a person who jittered his leg for the entire trip. We couldn't sleep or move. It was a very uncomfortable 12 hour plane ride. The China Eastern Airline was, I guess, aware of this fact and led the entire plane of passengers in exercise routines.

My first meal in China (at the Shanghai Airport). Little did I know that it would be my best meal in the following week.

Mom completely exhausted and passing out at the Shanghai Airport during our six hour lay-over before catching a flight to Beijing.

Our Hotel. On the plane, I read in my travel book that one could get two very very different experience traveling in China. You could have "China A", where you are treated really nicely, sleep in 4-5 star hotels, see amazing sights. Or, you could end up with the "China B" experience, where you end up in sketchy hotel and get scammed into cheap products and see a very poor and unsettling sight of China. We ended up with China A. Just look at our 4.5 star hotel. (I didn't know they give out half stars.)

Note how considerate they are. Vibrating Condoms for purchase.